Pedestrian tunnel robbery on WMU campus turns out to be a false report, police say

The assault, if it happened, did not happen on campus, authorities say.

KALAMAZOO, MI -- The man who claimed last week that he was a student attacked in the pedestrian tunnel on Western Michigan University's campus now says the attack occurred elsewhere. And he's not a student.

On Friday, April 12 university authorities posted a warning on WMU's student web site that student's should be cautious following the assault which had reportedly occurred near the Michigan Avenue roundabout on Western Michigan University's campus shortly after midnight.

The male student told police he was alone in the tunnel at 12:15 a.m. when he was approached by two men who knocked him to the ground and took his backpack before leaving the tunnel, running east. He was helped by a man on a bicycle, he said, and was treated for shoulder injuries at a local hospital.

But his story quickly unraveled, police said.

Police tried to contact him to arrange for him to meet with a composite artist to create drawing of the assailants. "The first giveaway was when the victim wouldn't return our calls, that sends up flags," said Blaine Kalafut, Deputy Chief of WMU's Department of Public Safety.

The clincher, though, was when surveillance video showed no evidence of his presence in the area of campus he claimed to be in at the time he said he was there, Kalafut said.

The man now maintains that he was assaulted but at a different time, on Oak Street, said Cheryl Roland, director of university relations for WMU. She said he told officers later he initially named that on-campus location because "he thought it might result in the crime being solved more quickly.

"We do not know at this point what, if any, elements of his original story are factual," Roland said.

The case is being turned over to Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety, and the university is considering possible charges against the man for filing a false police report.

"It's close to finals, with enough stress in that, " Kalafut said, without adding to students' worries about a possible assault on campus. "It makes people apprehensive," he said. " Then throw in wasting manpower chasing something that didn't happen."

"I think it's important to note how seriously we take such fabrications and the misuse of University time and resources," Roland said.